Best football game I've ever seen

Awesome Bluffton High game last night. Playing Carey, a team which went to the playoffs last year while BHS struggled through a losing season, both sides had trouble running into the line. First two touchdowns for b oth teams were on long pass plays. Carey missed the 2nd extra point, after the first just barely squibbed through the goalposts, so on their third touchdon they went for 2 and made it, to go up 21-14.

BHS then scored but the extra point was blocked to make it 21-20. Then Carey went up 28-20, and it looked bleak for the Pirates. But the Bluffton quarterback put up a long pass, which I just knew was going to be dropped by the receiver, but the receiver made a great catch, and faked first one way and then the other, and then went down the sidelines for the score. A beautiful 2-point conversion tied it. The offense faked going left, then the q-back rolled out right and all of a sudden there was a receiver open to the right and he shoveled it in for the tieing score.

On another Pirate pass play the ball was off, and this time two defenders were covering the reciever, J.D. Stratton, but Stratton alertly banged into the receivers just as they were about to catch the ball and it fell incomplete. Stratton was shaken up on the play but I think is OK.

The Pirates had the ball with 4 minutes left and if they had any kind of ground game, they had a chance to grind it out and score with too little time left for Carey to retaliate. But with no ground game they gave up the ball and Carey got it but went 4 and out and the Pirates had it with less than a minute to go. They ran it into field goal position and alertly lined up and spiked the ball, showing good coaching IMO. With 6.5 seconds left, they tried the field goal and missed woefully short, but the Carey end crossed the line of scrimmage early trying to block the kick, and the offsides penalty gave the Pirates another chance 5 yards closer. This time the kicker nailed it with a beautiful kick, and the Pirate bench swarmed onto the field and created a dog pile congratulating the kicker. However, there was still 1.4 seconds left, and, sitting near the press box, I could hear the Pirate assistant in the press box screaming into his headphones saying "Get them off the field, get them off the field. We haven't won anything yet!"

Fortunately the refs called no penalty on the Pirates, choosing to motion them off the field instead, and on the ensuing kickoff the kicker aptly kicked a line drive kick, instead of a long kick which would have risked a return, and the Carey player who fielded it was tackled immediately and the celebration now could take place unimpeded.

Worth mentioning is the Pirtae punter, who kicked high, booming kicks ever chance he got, the best high school punter I've ever seen by far. All in all, a memorable game.